by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

MINNEAPOLIS -- Harry Crump may no longer be a full-time judge, but he'll forever be a folk hero in these parts, helping save the Minnesota Twins with a historic decision.

Detroit Tigers outfielder Torii Hunter is no longer a Twin, but easily recalls his resentment toward Major League Baseball 13 years ago - and also the overwhelming joy when a stay of execution enabled the 2002 team to craft an underdog narrative into the playoffs.

Twins president Dave St. Peter, peering out from a conference room at gorgeous Target Field, is praying the record-low forecast is wrong for Tuesday's All-Star Game, but it sure beats worrying about the prognosis his team was about to be eliminated from baseball.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, sitting in his downtown Milwaukee office overlooking Lake Michigan, recalls those dark days when owners wanted two teams contracted, only to see the 85th All-Star Game played in downtown Minneapolis.

He calls it one of his proudest achievements in 45 years in baseball, only wishing that late Twins owner Carl Pohlad, his closest friend among baseball owners, were alive to see it.

The Twins, mortified their proud franchise would be taken away 13 years ago, will be hosting their first All-Star Game in nearly 30 years Tuesday, and on this night, crying in baseball will be quite acceptable.

"I can tell you this,'' says St. Peter, who has been with the Twins for 25 years, "there's nobody that works for the Twins who lived through that period of time that takes a single day of this for granted.

"Everything literally vaporized in front of us. It's going to be a very emotional day.''

And it certainly will bring back memories of Nov. 6, 2001, the day Twins employees and players gathered around TV sets, wondering if they would have a team the next day.

"We were so mad,'' Hunter tells USA TODAY Sports, "we kept hearing on TV we were going to be contracted, and they were going to have this dispersal draft. Major League Baseball was just going to get rid of us.

"ESPN called us the best Triple-A team in baseball. That's what ESPN called us, and I'll never forget that.''

Just two days earlier, the Arizona Diamondbacks stunned the New York Yankees to win a seven-game World Series, but now 30 owners were gathered in Chicago at their quarterly meetings, and the hot topic was contraction.

Franchises were losing money in baseball, and owners were ready to downsize. The two that appeared doomed were the Twins and Montreal Expos. The Expos weren't being supported in Quebec, and Pohlad was frustrated he couldn't get public funding for a new ballpark, stuck in the Teflon-roof covered Metrodome.

"The owners really wanted contraction,'' Selig told USA TODAY Sports, "but for different reasons. The economics of the sport was brutal at the time. They looked at (contraction) at the time as one of the better solutions to it.

"Did I necessarily agree? No. But I understood the logic.''

Selig insists no specific teams were targeted for contraction in the meeting, but everyone realized that if two teams are going, the Twins and Expos were the logical choices. Jim Pohlad, son of the late Twins owner, even had a meeting with the Twins' front office, telling them there were no assurances the team would survive.

"That was the darkest day,'' St. Peter says of the Nov. 6 ownership meeting. "To my knowledge, we were never officially named, but people knew. Obviously, they were talking about Montreal and us.

"There was a significant feeling of hopelessness about the future of baseball here.

We were preparing employee transition plans and things of that nature.''

It was that night, or maybe the next day, St. Peter says, when his phone rang. It was Hall of Fame slugger Harmon Killebrew.

"The most difficult phone call I ever had,'' St. Peter says, "was taking that phone call. Harmon just had an incredibly difficult time fathoming it. I'll never forget it.

"Just the thought of the Twins franchise, in essence, being wiped off the map, was tough to accept.''

Twins fans were incensed. They blamed Pohlad, believing that a man worth close to $3 billion should build his own ballpark without public funding. Government officials listened to the fans. If a new ballpark was going to be built, Pohlad realized he would have to sell.

There were no viable buyers. And hostilities extended right into the commissioner's office.

"We didn't want to go out of business,'' says Jim Pohlad, the Twins' CEO. "We live here. None of us wanted to see the Twins leave.

"But there was an awful lot of frustration.''

Selig, who says he spent more time in Minnesota lobbying for a new ballpark than any team but Miller Park in Milwaukee, says that no team was going to be contracted without their consent. And never once, he said, not even in private conversations, did Pohlad volunteer to extinguish the franchise.

"It's a historical myth,'' Selig says. "Never in the meetings, informally or formally, did we ever talk about any specific cities. Minneapolis is a marvelous city. It's the 14th-largest market. Why would anyone want to leave there?

"I didn't want them go to. Neither did Carl. But he was just getting so frustrated.''

If there were any immediate plans for contraction, they vanished 10 days later. Harry Seymour Crump, the Hennepin County district judge, ordered the Twins to play their 2002 home schedule in the Metrodome. Roger Magnuson, an attorney for Major League Baseball, immediately said there would be an appeal. The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld Crump's decision in January.

"To me, it was an easy decision,'' Crump tells USA TODAY Sports, sipping a hot chocolate at a Starbucks in suburban Savage. "Really, it took me only 20 minutes. It was just another day of work. But of all of the tens of thousands of cases I've had, people still bring it up all of the time.''

Crump wrote in his four-page ruling: "The welfare, recreation, prestige, prosperity, trade and commerce of the people of the community are at stake â?¦.The vital public interest, or trust, of the Twins substantially outweighs any private interest."

Twins fans were elated. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune honored Crump as their sportsperson of the year. The Twins even orchestrated a Crump bubblehead day, only for Crump to stop it, calling it "a violation of ethical standards."

Crump, 76, still is recognized in the community, mostly by his name, and not his face. When recognized, he is always thanked for his role in saving the Twins. He even tells the story when he helped chaperone a class of middle-school kids on the bus, including 12-year-old Kiki Pohlad, Carl's granddaughter. Yes, she thanked him too.

If not for that ruling, are the Twins still around, with an international spotlight on the city Tuesday night?

"Probably not,'' Crump says. "Baseball was pretty set on contraction.''

Says St. Peter: "We'll never know for sure, but I'm sure thankful for that ruling. It was really the first signal that we were going be around.''

Still, even after Crump's ruling, the Twins never received an official word they were going to play. Manager Tom Kelly, who led the Twins to World Series championships in 1987 and 1991, had announced his retirement. Yet, there was so much uncertainty, the Twins waited until Jan. 4 - six weeks before spring training - before hiring Ron Gardenhire as his successor.

"Personally, I didn't put much stock in all of that contraction talk,'' Kelly said. "It was like the replacement players (during the 1995 lockout). I didn't put any stock into that either.

"If that had happened, I would have been devastated.''

Still, instability was evident. The Toronto Blue Jays moved to lure Twins GM Terry Ryan for their vacancy, a job that likely doubled his salary. Ryan wouldn't even interview and leave everybody behind.

"What Terry did will never be forgotten here,'' says Jim Rantz, the Twins' former farm director, who played for the franchise starting in 1961 and joined the front office in 1965. "We were all kind of down, thinking we would be contracted. But when Terry stayed, it gave everyone hope.

"If he wasn't jumping ship, then why should anyone else?''

There wasn't a single front-office defection, St. Peter says.

"When we got to spring training,'' Hunter says, "we wanted to prove the world wrong. We said, 'Let's have one more push. If this is going to be our last year, let's make it a good one.

"We played mad at the world all year. I don't know how many fights we almost got into. We didn't care. We were angry. We weren't going to let baseball just get rid of us.

"And we proved the world wrong.''

The Twins ran away with the American League Central with a 94-67 record. They wound up dominating the division the rest of the decade, winning the title six times in nine years. The fans came back. Interest soared. And, in 2006, the Twins finally received approval for their $522 million ballpark.

"If we don't win that year,'' says retired Twins closer Eddie Guardado, "there is no stadium. Maybe there is no Twins. That's the most special group of guys I've even been a part of.''

The players from that 2002 team - a group that includes Jacque Jones, A.J. Pierznyski, Johan Santana, David Ortiz, Kyle Lohse, Mike Jackson, Corey Koskie, J.C. Romero, Doug Mientkiewicz, Denny Hocking and Joe Mays, still remain close, some vacationing together.

"For us, it was so gratifying,'' says reliever LaTroy Hawkins, who bought a seat from the old Metrodome, Seat 32, Row 1. "I always thought there should be other teams contracted before us. We wanted to show the world that, hey, MLB, Minnesota is a great baseball town.''

Says Hunter: "We understood how important it was going to be to win. We told each other, "Let's play so well, they can't get rid of us. We're not going to let MLB do a thing to us.'

"And if we had a horrible year that season, well, we knew there may be no Minnesota Twins today.''

The Twins, who have had three consecutive 90-loss seasons, are sitting in last place again. Yet, there are plenty of fans, with 18,000 season ticket holders - 7,000 more than their record total in the Metrodome.

And there is a future.

"I give a lot of credit to that 2001-2002 team,'' St. Peter says. "They were able to rekindle a spirit, not just externally, but inside our organization. They played such an important role in where we are today.''

If the Twins wanted to be picky, sure, there are days they wish they had a retractable roof. The forecast high of 67 degrees Tuesday would be the lowest for an All-Star Game in at least 35 years. It could be worse. The temperature is expected to drop into the low 40s on Wednesday.

Yet, after being on death row, man, it sure feels good to be alive.

"The world,'' St. Peter says, "looks a whole lot different today.''â??